If you are considering starting with a business management software (ERP) in your company, you have dozens of questions to ask yourself. To help you in this process of internal reflection and validation, we have prepared for you a summary of the most frequent questions that our clients have asked themselves before the implementation of an ERP:
What do I have to prepare to implement an ERP solution?
It is recommended that you do a small internal previous job before making the leap to find ERP solution and partner. We recommend that the first step be to document, define and draw the processes carried out by the different departments of your company. With this checklist it will be easier to see which products match what you are looking for and the partners you contact will quickly identify your requirements.
Next, you must locate within your business structure a person who knows the internal functioning and has the necessary skills to lead such a project. Do not fool yourself, not always a technical person is the most suitable for this type of work. In our experience, it is essential that the person who will organize your team internally and be the interlocutor with the implementing partner has a great capacity for logic and reasoning, is organized and has good harmony with the team members who will actively collaborate in the project .
Perform a Gap Analysis
Although the requirements of the companies are not usually unique and exclusive, it is the way you deal with the direction and management of your company and your circuits.
To ensure part of the success of an ERP implementation it is essential that you perform a Gap Analysis of the solutions you are evaluating.
Although from Triangle we always recommend trying to adapt the work circuits to the product standard to avoid modifications, if they are essential, you should monitor what they are, what their development cost and subsequent maintenance and update of versions are.
What is the difference between Cloud (SaaS) and On-premise?
When you have only a couple of options on the table, you will ask yourself questions that refer to the architecture of the solution. Do you have in-house infrastructure and resources to maintain and guarantee the security of hosting the ERP solution on your own servers? Your strategy is about digitizing your company little by little, but you’re not ready yet? You can consider a local hosting or an Azure hosting.
If on the contrary you are very clear that your strategy is 100% cloud, you have a question answered from your list.
Do not forget to review these articles for more information on this issue:
Dynamics NAV On-premise or cloud? Benefits and risks
Dynamics NAV on the cloud? 10 questions to help you to make the right decision
How many months does the ERP implementation take?
For this question there is no absolute answer. We will have to say that it depends on various factors such as, for example, the modules to be launched, the complexity of your circuits, the companies to start, the degree of customization required, etc.
At least we could set 1 month for 100% financial implementations, for those cases in which the company is already familiar in some way with the product to be implemented. From there, we could define about 8/9 months for complex implementations that contemplate the 100% start-up of its circuits in the ERP with more complex modules such as advanced warehouse management.
Of course, timings can vary substantially depending on the degree of involvement of the client and the collaboration they can provide during the project.
Can I keep the history of my data?
When you accept the ERP commissioning project, you must pay attention to the type of data migration proposed by the provider. As usual, if you are able to extract data from your current systems in Excel format, you can migrate them to your new ERP system. Although this statement you should clarify it with your partner.
What hidden costs should I consider?
The hidden costs will depend on the inclusions in the implementation project: is there enough training budgeted? Are the weeks of boot support sufficient? What kind of long-term relationship does the partner try to weave?
On the other hand, it is also important to identify if during the analysis phase some important requirement that could make the project price vary substantially was ignored.
What are other companies looking for for their ERP solutions?
Although each company may have its own requirements, it is true that there are some common points for companies that want to start working with an ERP:
- Complete solution: Above all, small businesses try to keep their initial investment in software low while trying to get the most functionality. On the other hand, large companies also look for complete out-of-the-box solutions that solve the maximum of their requirements through the product standard.
- Low risk: the risk of launching an ERP software is high, so companies try to minimize it to the maximum. How? Choosing a partner with a solid working methodology, benchmarking the ERP solutions available in the market and their fit with the company, among others.
- 100% mobility: companies are globalizing and the whole team wants to access the ERP when they are working either traveling or from home. The modern solutions are 100% mobile with the possibility of native apps for Android and IOS.
If you have reached the end of the article and are determined to carry out an ERP implementation, we recommend reading the following article
How to survive the implementation of an ERP?
And do not hesitate to contact us if you want us to explore the possibilities of joint work.